An advanced telecommunications service is coming to Newburgh. Two private entrepreneurs and a not for-profit business have joined forces to create a high-speed network which will improve the business climate, enhance health care services and enrich educational opportunities in the Orange county area.

Private developer, Walter Lambert of Northeast Management & Development corp. has contracted with Dr. David Bonner of the Adirondack Area Network (AANet) and Hudson valley DataNet, a consortium of local investors, with extensive business, telephone and computer services experience to design and implement a telecommunications network.

This network will have its hub at the 17 acre, West Street Medical/Technical Park proposed in the city of Newburgh. When completed, the project will encompass 55,000-75,000 sq. ft., subdivided into five buildings. The total project cost is roughly $8 million, including $400,000 for the construction of an access road into the site.

The West Street complex has been accepted into the AANet, a frame relay network cluster that will bring video conferencing, telemedicine, internet connectivity and interactive distance learning to the local area. Hudson valley DataNet will provide the missing link: a 90 mile " fiber loop", which will make the local connections across the country.

This comprehensive telecommunications package will make West Street the strongest, most technologically advanced development site in the Hudson valley.

Adirondack Area Network

AANet was created in 1995 to provide advanced telecommunications services to geographically remote areas in the Adirondack Region of Upstate New York. Highly successful, AANet has since expanded from its initial 45 institutions to approximately 120.

AANet will serve as the blueprint for West Street's technological configuration. In addition, West Street's acceptance into the AANet will enhance local content available on the "Newburgh Net", by providing access to information from institutions such as Albany Medical College, Samuel S. Stratton VA Medical center, Alice Hyde Hospital, Elizabethtown Community Hospital, and roughly 28 school systems and five BOCES programs.

Upon completion of the project, Northeast will contract with AANet for on-going services and management support.

Teleconference Agenda

On behalf of the City of Newburgh Industrial Development Agency (IDA), which supports the West Street Telecommunications Project, you are invited to experience, first hand, the type of information which will be made available to the Orange County region.

On Dec 7th, Dr. Bonner will host a teleconference for community members demonstrating program outcomes by linking Newburgh with various organizations actively participating in the AANet.

In particular, business, political and education leaders will get a glimpse of the telecommunications network being replicated in the City of Newburgh by taking a virtual trip to Albany Medical Center, for an educational show-and-tell.